In Stanford’s football program, the game plans are linked to a conditioning system based on nutritional discipline. The best players, says performance coordinator Shannon Turley, are the most conscientious eaters. Here’s the approach in, well, a nutshell.
When Turley arrived in 2007 as part of Coach Jim Harbaugh’s new staff, dinner was the team’s mandatory “training table” meal. Turley switched it to breakfast. The once-a-day meal funded by athletics augments athletes’ scholarship-funded board from University food plans. Football’s overarching theme, he notes, is to “dictate the tempo and set the tone early. You do that in your lifestyle by waking up and having a great breakfast and then going to class, being alert and fueled to pay attention, take notes and engage in the learning process. And the same can be said for meetings, practice, (weight) lifting, conditioning.”
Players are educated in how to make the best choices, and not just when their options are sorted and overseen at training table. They learn about the relationship of carbohydrates to calories, the role of protein in muscle development, the stored energy provided by fat, and how higher or lower glycemic-index foods correspond to activity levels. Freshmen see charts illustrating the progress of former stars such as offensive lineman David DeCastro, ’12, who in his first year added 14 pounds but lowered his body fat percentage and improved all his weightlifting totals.
Turley credits the Residential & Dining Enterprises staff for supplying the requested food items at the training table at Branner Hall and the help from wellness and performance nutritionist Elaine Magee, a “tremendous ally” in his teaching. When Magee speaks to the team or attends the breakfast, he says with a smile, she “helps provide a new voice, a different voice, from Coach Turley’s constant beratement.”
